WHAT AMERICA HAS DONE 
FOR THE IRIS 
JOHN C. WISTER 
President American Iris Society 
Editor’s Note: — There is very much of interest in the history and personal as- 
sociation of the pioneers with the earliest cultivation of various plants and flowers that 
have become really so popular as to have outstepped the confines of the garden and 
become almost cosmopolitans in their appeal and acquaintance with the world at large. 
Unfortunately, much of this early history has been lost because in the beginning the 
ultimate wide-spreading interest could not be foreseen. The earliest and greatest amount 
of plant improvement naturally was accomplished by European gardeners, and the in- 
troduction of their products into the gardens of America formed the basis of further 
developments in conformity with the requirements and the conditions of this country. 
The Garden Magazine has attempted to put in concise form available information 
concerning the early history of popular garden plants in this country and the people 
who aided this development. This article dealing with the Iris is a fitting continuation 
of previous articles of like character devoted to the Rose and to the Peony which, it is 
hoped, will in due time be followed by the story of the Dahlia and others of similar 
general appeal. 
SUDDENLY in the 
spring of 1920 the 
JJj world awoke to the 
f act that the Iris 
was the coming American 
garden flower. Amateurs every- 
where were inquiring about Iris 
varieties, where to buy them, how 
to plant them; communities were 
planting public Iris gardens; and 
Iris shows were being held. 
This interest in the Iris, then 
for the first time markedly uni- 
versal, seems to indicate that in 
American gardens the fourth period 
of Iris development has begun. 
Irises have been grown here more 
than a century; and, looking back 
upon it, we can easily divide that 
century into three periods : ( 1 ) from 
1820 to 1875; (2) from 1875 to 1900; (3) from 1900 to 1920. 
At the beginning of the first period there were already in Am- 
erica a dozen or twenty cultivated forms of Bearded Iris such as 
pumila, Chamaeiris, lutescens, florentina, germanica, pallida, 
variegata, and sambucina. These were apparently offered for 
the first time in America by that pioneer nurseryman, William 
Prince of Flushing, Long Island. It was not until some time 
in the “’fifties” that the first named varieties of Bearded Iris 
were offered; and among them were Aurea, Honorabile, Mme. 
Chereau, and Jacquesiana, which are still much grown to-dav, 
and which, in fact, are fully as good as many of the more 
advertised later productions. As many as a hundred varieties 
were offered by representative nurseries during the “’sixties;” 
but after 1875 the interest in these named varieties slackened 
just as it did in Europe after the Franco-Prussian War. 
The second period, 1875 to 1900, was noteworthy for the 
interest in species of Iris other than the Bearded (or so-called 
germanica) Group. For the first time some of our native Iris 
began to be appreciated; of these there were more than a dozen 
growing in more than twenty-five states, ranging from Maine 
to California. The writings of J. G. Gerard in Garden and Forest 
were among the first to call attention to these beautiful species. 
To-day only three of them, versicolor, cristata, and fulva, seem 
to be grown to any extent by gardeners in the eastern part of 
the United States. It was during this period that Mr. Carl 
Purdy of Ukiah, California, discovered and brought into culti- 
vation many of the exquisitely lovely Californian species which 
are now well known in Europe, but have not been successfully 
cultivated as yet in the colder regions of the United States. 
The Japanese Iris also first reached the United States during 
these years. It has been stated that Thomas Hogg was its 
first importer, and his collection given to Doctor Thurber, then 
Editor of The American Horticulturist — was introduced into 
the trade shortly after 1869, the approximate date of im- 
portation. Others give the credit not to Hogg, but to Hallock 
& Thorpe of Queens, L. I. But whichever came first, both were 
early and widely disseminated collections, for the beauties of this 
new flower speedily captured the gardeners. The terrible con- 
fusion still existing in the nomenclature of this species originated 
at that early date through the re-naming and the translating of 
Japanese names. The large and varied collection of Prof. 
R. T. Jackson of Cambridge, Mass., was also made between 
1875 and 1 900,- and he is credited with raising what is believed 
to be the first American seedling in the Bearded group, the 
. variety Pallisy (very rich in coloring, but too small to remain 
important), which received a Certificate of Merit from the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1885. 
With the new century came a tremendous awakening of 
interest in hardy plants, and among them the Iris soon received 
its share of attention. About the time of the founding of The 
Garden Magazine in 1904, a nursery was started at Wyom- 
issing, Pennsylvania, b}' a man of little previous experience in 
gardening, but whose love for it had led him to give up his 
business to become a nurseryman. This little nursery has done 
much to stimulate general knowledge of Peonies, Phlox, Lilacs, 
and other plants — but especially Iris. For whatever develop- 
ment the Iris has reached in America to-day is due more to the 
founder of this nursery, Mr. Bertrand H. Farr, than to any 
other man or group of men. 
Mr. Farr imported large numbers of named varieties of Iris 
from Barr and from Wallace of England, which, when distrib- 
uted, aroused enthusiasm everywhere. Among them, of course 
were a goodly number of the old Lemon varieties, already in 
this country in the “’fifties” and “’sixties” as I have said; 
but as he had not previously imported from Holland or from 
general European nurseries, Mr. Farr’s collection did not con- 
tain the duplications so apparent in other nurseries. From 
this initial collection were raised his first seedlings which, even 
more than the imported plants, brought immediate fame to 
him; for among the very first of them were such gems as Quaker 
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